1542.04 - Oral Tradition I

1542.04

Oral Tradition I

10

To give the students a general overview of the poetic devices and compositional characteristics of various ballad forms in the Faroe Islands and Scandinavia with a special emphasis on the Faroese heroic ballad.

The course focusing on Faroese Ballads will give a general overview of the poetic devices and compositional characteristics of various ballad forms in the Faroe Islands and Scandinavia. There will be a special emphasis on the Faroese heroic ballad though lectures will revolve around questions and research concerning the development of the ballad tradition, performative contexts, and the cultural effects of the ballads being textualized from the latter part of the eighteenth century and on. At the examination the student is required to demonstrate a thorough knowledge of Faroese herioc ballads, analyze a heroic ballad with regard to contents and style, explain the process of oral tradition and the conditions that characterize the creation of oral poetry with regard to form as well as contents, and describe various scholarly traditions and perceptions of oral poetry. For the examination the student submits: A: 6 heroic ballads, 1 historic ballad, 1 ballad of romance, 1 sacred ballad and 1 supernatural ballad. All texts will be read in normalized form. B: 4 theoretical works or the equivalent.

There will be two lectures per week over the course of two terms.

The student may choose to take 6-hours written examination or write a paper on a subject chosen by the candidate. External examiners. x

Eyðun Andreassen